


Bad Ending

by Beatrix_Potter



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW Comics), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Body Horror, Gen, but just to the extent of a normal zombot, referenced child death, takes place immediately during/after idw issue 27, zombots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:47:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27752548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beatrix_Potter/pseuds/Beatrix_Potter
Summary: Gemerl completed his primary objective: neutralize the Zeti and retrieve the chaos emerald.His second objective: protecting everyone from the virus? Not so much.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	Bad Ending

**Author's Note:**

> Here’s my first fanfic for ao3!

“I’ll be brave. I’ll just hide my eyes. Like it’s a scary movie.”

Her voice was weak, but high-pitched, carrying over the backdrop— the screams of his Zeti target and the moans of the threats infecting it. There was a weight in his hands, one that was warm despite the lack of skin to feel it; the chaos emerald. His objective. It was complete.

What was the point of objectives if he lost the one he completed them for?

What was any objective to Cream, the one he promised to protect?

His mind made up, Gemerl clenched the emerald in his hand, before chucking it into the portal that led to Angel Island. Eyes wide and mouth agape, Cream could only blink at him as she was scooped up in his arms. They took off.

“Gemerl…?” He saw her glance hesitantly between him and her arm, where the infection fanned past her neck. He held her tighter.

“I will stay with you until…” He couldn’t bring himself to broach the prognosis. 

“... You are well.”

<><><><><><><><><>

Gemerl was one of Dr. Ivo Robotnik’s greatest feats, adapted from one of Dr. Gerald Robotnik’s greatest achievements from a celebrated creation of the Nocturnus Clan. He was a finely attuned fighting machine who could hold his own against some of the strongest warriors in the modern world. He was virtually perfect. He would be the last to know of pain.

But he could recognize pain, and it brought him a new kind of agony to see it in Cream. Her brown eyes— now discolored a grim red— were wide and fluttering, her hands were shaking, her breath came in shallow pants. She curled up oh-so-small in his arms, trying to glean some heat from his engines to soothe the coldness of the virus. He could tell from her silence that she was afraid the hordes would discover their little hiding spot, tucked in the sunniest corner of an abandoned warehouse.

It hurt worse to know how little he could do about it. The conversion from flesh to metal was bound to be painful, and there was no medicine on hand that could alleviate her pain. All he could do was let her rest in his lap and stroke her head. There was an odd scraping noise as he pet her. It sounded like metal on metal.

<><><><><><><><><>

Their friends had failed. He had never seen any results after sending his emerald, only forced to migrate away from various infected while dragging Cream along with her. It wasn’t until he’d flown to the now land-bound Angel Island and found a metallic hedgehog and echidna standing over a shattered Master Emerald that he knew to grab his own mindless charge and fly away for good.

Cream was… quiet, now. He hadn’t heard her real voice in over a century. She was quiet, and she never played anymore. All she would do now would push against his armor and wobble a little whenever he let her move freely. He didn’t worry about losing track of her much; as the only independently acting individual on the planet, he was a prime target for any creatures in the area.

It was a drab existence. Avoid the stray infected, Fly to a safe place for Cream, watch Cream stumble around, refuel, block the inevitable attack from Cream, avoid the stray infected, fly around for Cream. It took exactly 147 years, 5 months, and 3 days into the metal virus crisis before something new happened.

He had been raiding a fuel station, keeping an optic on Cream, who stood eerily in the wide streets of Sunset Heights. It was then that he noticed Shadow, hunched over in the street. Gemerl rushed over to rescue Cream; they had come across Shadow before, and his hyper-aggressive nature was too much for either of them. But then he paused— something wasn’t right. Shadow was clearly trying to approach them, but his crawling— crawling?— was clumsy and sluggish. He wasn’t even four yards away from them before he keeled over with a garbled groan.

Then Gemerl noticed the trail of metal. Shining, shimmering, blood red, it spread across broken asphalt. Shadow released a warbled groan of pain as his body bubbled and sank, melting into the road.

“Any infected heterotrophic eukaryote cells will eventually suffer a form of apoptosis.”

His creator’s words buzzed in his mind. Was it time for all the zombots to disintegrate? Cream was beside him, struggling in his grip to approach the fallen hedgehog but otherwise no worse for the wear. Of course, Shadow was no ordinary creature. He already displayed unusual behavior and aptitude. It would be reasonable to assume his unique composition would make his form more unstable than others.

Satisfied with his theory and battery level, Gemerl plucked up Cream and blasted off. One thing still bothered him. Shadow disintegrated early. All infected people would still meet that fate, eventually. How much longer did Cream have?

<><><><><><><><><>

197 years, 6 months, 12 days. Cream was gone. So was everyone else.

<><><><><><><><><>

199 years, 11 months, 22 days. Fuel sources have become scarce. Battery low.

<><><><><><><><><>

200 years, 7 days. Fuel stations were either empty or damaged. Decades of hiding and attacks from his late friend with zero maintenance from anyone but himself have impaired his ability to get around. He stumbled around the town. He reached the town square, one filled with memories of a final battle and a Zeti’s screams. His optics were flickering, audio processors constantly buzzing. Eventually he climbed through a broken window and settled himself comfortably in the abandoned store.

He knew his battery was dying, so he decided he could at least get comfortable. He stared at the ruins outside, lulling himself to ‘sleep’ with the sound of his own cooling fans, which whirred obscenely loud in he emptiness.

“Hello? Is there anybody here?”

The last thing Gemerl saw was the backside of a silver hedgehog, searching for life in a world of nothingness.

**Author's Note:**

> You’d think the first fic I post on here wouldn’t be pure angst, but here we are. Thanks for reading!


End file.
